Ex-addict bent on setting others straight

Ex-convict Stacy Butler-Stripling, with husband, Jeremy, is the author of a book about the troubled turn her life took when she began to dabble in cocaine.

Customers call out friendly greetings to Stacy Butler-Stripling as she walks toward a table in the back of Effie's Charcoal Chef.

She usually is waiting on those tables.

On this recent day, she was at the Exeter Township restaurant to tell a story.

It starts with a sheltered childhood that turned into a nightmare of crime and drug addiction until law enforcement caught up with her. That's when she made up her mind that she was going to change her life.

Stacy, 43, also decided to share her story in every way she could to encourage other women to do what she did and to give back to the community some of what she feels she stole from it for years.

This time, she's telling it in honor of National Recovery Month, an event sponsored by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to spread the message that recovery from addiction is possible.

"I was corrupting the morals of everyone around me," Stacy said. "Now, I find it so amazing that I can inspire and be an example of doing the right thing."

The early years

Stacy lived in the Oakbrook housing development until her mother, Melissa Butler, bought a home on Birch Street.

Her mother set a good example in work ethic, holding down two jobs - one as a psychiatric aide at Wernersville State Hospital and another working with people with disabilities at Threshold Rehabilitation Services Inc.

Young Stacy was a cheerleader and a star pitcher for her school softball team.

She earned good grades and graduated from Reading High School in 1988.

Everyone in her life adored her.

"I had an excellent childhood," Stacy said. "I was raised like a little princess. I took it totally for granted."

She was a few credits shy of a degree from Reading Area Community College when she dropped out.

"That's when I started to dabble in cocaine," Stacy said. "It was experimental. It was kind of peer pressure because everybody wanted to try it, and I could easily get it."

An illegal empire grows

Stacy said people trusted her because of the type of person she was but didn't trust going into the city to buy drugs. So she became the connection between suburban drug users and city drug suppliers.

"I found another angle, and that was soliciting women," she said. "I was what you call a pimp. That's where I got the name Queen B. I had about 30 women working for me. I had a strip club underneath a restaurant on South Street. I was quite the entrepreneur.

"I had customers from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Philadelphia. For about 15 years I did this. I was dealing and on top of the game of drug sales."

Along the way she began using her own product more heavily.

"I was successful doing all those things under the radar," she said.

Or so she thought.

The downfall

In 2005, a customer who previously had bought a large amount of cocaine from Stacy wanted to make another buy.

She had a feeling something was wrong, but was so heavily into drugs by then she no longer cared.

State police had her under surveillance for about a year. The customer was a state trooper.

Because of the quantity of drugs she sold, Stacy was facing five to 10 years in state prison.

State police offered her a deal on a lighter sentence if she would make 10 to 12 buys from her supplier while under surveillance.

Stacy refused.

"I knew if I did that I would put my family in jeopardy," she said. "I have been threatened with a gun to my head.

"I figured I would have to take the consequences. I tried to get gut-level honest with myself and hold myself accountable."

She admitted herself to the Pyramid Rehabilitation Center in Altoona. Her mother and sister, Michelle, cared for her 11-year-old son, Cain Butler. Thirty days later she was reunited with her son. They moved into a house operated by Berks Counseling Center for mothers in recovery and their children.

"It was beautiful," Stacy said. "They taught me how to live right again and have a structured day."

While Stacy was waiting to go to trial, Effie Clauser, owner of the Charcoal Chef, gave her a job.

Stacy was found guilty of drug charges in February of 2007.

In April of that year she was clean and sober, four months pregnant and beginning a sentence of four to eight years in state prison.

Climbing back up

Stacy gave birth to her daughter, Melissa Butler, on Aug. 24, 2007, in Geisinger Medical Center. A day later she was back at the State Correctional Institution at Cambridge Springs, Crawford County.

She got certified in cognitive behavioral therapy through a prison program and counseled women in the prison's drug program.

For her efforts, she was released after three years to the ADAPPT halfway house in Reading on April 20, 2010.

Effie welcomed her back to her job and began hiring other convicted felons from ADAPPT because, as Effie said, they need a second chance and sometimes even a third or fourth.

The others look to Stacy for support. Stacy looks to Effie for advice, as though she were an older sister.

Stacy's husband, Jeremy Stripling, entered the picture six days after she arrived at ADAPPT. He had convictions for burglary and drunken driving and violated the terms of his parole by drinking and doing drugs.

"Until April 14," Jeremy said. "I had a bad experience. The next morning I woke and said, 'I'm done.' I've been clean since April 15, 2010."

Jeremy was released from ADAPPT on Oct. 25, 2010. Stacy was released on April 20, 2011. They married Nov. 11, 2011, at Spring Valley Church of God in Muhlenberg Township and honeymooned in Miami Beach.

Happy ending

Jeremy has his own general construction business. Stacy continues working at the restaurant.

Together, they live with Cain, 19, and Melissa, 6, in Exeter, taking one day of recovery at a time.

Life is rough at times, Jeremy said.

Stacy's mother died in a June 2011 car accident shortly after retiring from the state hospital. Jeremy's stepsister died while they were on their honeymoon. They recently lost a good friend to cancer.

Still, they go on.

"You have so many choices in your daily structure," Jeremy said. "It's how you choose. Do you want to go the right way or the wrong way. Today we're doing right."

"We're tested constantly," Stacy said. "It's easy to get sober. It's maintaining sobriety that's difficult because that means change, which is hard for everyone. However, if we make the commitment to ourselves and to do good and change completely, it works.

"The whole time I was dealing drugs I took a lot from this society. I took a lot from people. I took people's money that could have been contributed to families. That's why I think it's so important to give back in recovery."